Rutherford hints at future

Tuesday

Feb 19, 2013 at 11:42 AMFeb 19, 2013 at 12:29 PM

Cynthia Grau

It has been a dream of Dan Rutherford to make a run for governor. It appears he may be ready to do so.The Illinois State Treasurer told the audience Monday night at the annual Lincoln-Regan Dinner that he may throw his hat into the ring soon.“I’m not announcing tonight. None of you walked in this room and thought I was announcing tonight. You know I can’t do it tonight, but I’m in for the governor’s race for the state of Illinois and that’s for doggone sure,” Rutherford said to thunderous applause.Rutherford stressed it was not his official candidacy announcement and his office staff said he would be testing support levels at the event. It was clear the support was there. “When I ran for treasurer in 2010, I got more votes than Mark Kirk did when he won his United States Senate seat. I got 66,000 more votes for the treasurer of the state of Illinois down-ballot than Pat Quinn did winning the governor’s race,” he said to even more applause.Rutherford, R-Chenoa, the evening’s keynote speaker, also stated he feels the Republican Party needs to add more diversity and reach out to other ethnicities.“In 2010, I stuck strictly to economics, taxes and spending, and I reached out to communities of diversity. The problem that our Republican Party has had for many years is the fact that we don’t bring in people of diversity and say, ‘By the way, we know we’re a little different and that’s OK,’” Rutherford said.There were several other speakers for the GOP event that was well attended at the Pontiac Elks Lodge.U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, touched on the fact that Ronald Reagan won his presidency on a completely different platform than offices are won in today’s political climate.“We need to be upset about what’s going on in Washington. We need to be upset about what’s going on in Illinois. But we have to do it in a way that’s not about dividing our country. Ronald Reagan won in 1980 not because he stood on national TV and screamed at Jimmy Carter, talked about how terrible everything was and tried to scare the American people. He won because he had a vision of the America he wanted to live in and the America that he believed could exist under his leadership,” Kinzinger said.He continued, adding that the general public sees Republicans in a negative light and that needs to change.“What I’ve seen lately that concerns me, and I’m just being honest, is that the new definition of conservatism in this country is not any more about what you believe, it’s about who’s the loudest and who’s the angriest. And whoever’s on national TV screaming the most is probably the biggest offender of conservatism. That’s what I think people have started to see,” he said.Kinzinger said that the Republicans lost a lot of ground in the 2012 election, but he’s hoping the party can regain some of its momentum in the coming years.“Thirty-eight percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans, which means that in order to win national elections … if we want to be a minority party forever, we’re on the right track. If we want to win national elections, we need to take 13 percent and switch them from the ‘I don’t call myself a Republican’ column to ‘You know what? I’m going to be a Republican today.’ They do that by talking about the optimistic hope for our future,” Kinzinger said.State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, also spoke at the dinner. He touched on the fact that there is a lot going on in the legislature and a lot of it has to do with fiscal issues that he and other legislators are working to overcome.“The thing that gives me hope in this tremendously difficult legislative process - the difficulty that we have in seeing a bright future in a state that so many of us are frustrated with - the opportunity we have is that we in this room are not alone in recognizing that our state needs to move in a different direction,” Barickman said. “As Republicans, we have a tremendous opportunity in front of us in 2014. The public is out there listening. They know what the problem is and they’re waiting for one of us to deliver the answer, the solution, of how we can be better as a state. Never has there been a time where the Republican vision of control spending, of efficient government and of a logical approach to creating an environment where people who can create jobs create them in Illinois.”Newly inaugurated Representative Josh Harms, R-Watseka, spoke of his first five days spent in Springfield and what working with Rutherford has meant to him.“Since Dan’s taken the treasurer’s office, he’s done something that I’ve never gotten an e-mail about yet. He said, ‘Cut my budget.’ I love that because everybody says ‘I want money,’ and there are service providers that we need to pay. I say, ‘I can’t guarantee we can do that. They’ve been delaying payments.’ We have a treasurer that says to cut his budget. Last week, he said, ‘Cut my budget again.’ That is great for me to say and that’s one person I can call and say, ‘I would be glad to,’” Harms said.Other speakers Monday evening included State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Normal, as well as Dan Proft, a political radio personality from WLS in Chicago who also ran as a Republican candidate for governor in 2010.